russia has been syria's strong effort ally in all of this. is there anything that can be done to convince russia to pull back their support? >> well, chris, i think that is a pertinent issue right now. this is a dangerous situation, obviously, when there's a -- at least the possibility of the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government or the possibility when that government falls those weapons might not be secure and there are terrorist groups, of course, some quite radical, active in syria. i think secretary clinton was right to meet with the russian foreign minister today. the third person joining that meeting was brahimi, the united nations' diplomat, troubleshooter for syria. i imagine both secretary clinton and mr. brahimi would be lean on the russians to convince assad to leave power. he's finished in syria. there's no way he's going to emerge victorious. the only options for him are to lose and lose his life, most probability, or leave syria but certainly this civil war now more than 40,000 people dead, and with the latest proble